Sunday, August 14, 2011

A question for Mandarin and/or Japanese speakers...?

I minored in East Asian Studies with a concentration in Mandarin Chinese language, and decided I wanted to get a Chinese character/Kanji tattoo, so I got a "平" on my left wrist, thinking it meant "peace." The problem is, I did this while still taking Chinese I, and I didn't realize that without a "和" before it or an "安" after it, it wasn't exactly clear that it meant "peace," and had more an air of "flat." What could I do to make the tattoo make more sense? I can't add "和" before it, since it's where my wrist meets my hand, so I figured I could add "安" below it or on my right wrist. I was also thinking about changing it to "氣," the traditional character for qi/ch'i. Would that work/be better, or would it be taken as the literal meaning of "gas?" If you have any other ideas of how I could modify it, please let me know. If at all possible, I'd like the character (or character combination) to make sense in both Mandarin and Japanese. Thanks!

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